Heart of Darkness: Humans to Savages
Within the book Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad uses only two types of human characters, the cannibalistic Africans and the domesticated Europeans. While the adjectives in front of each race may provide insight into how they act and behave through the eyes of a European, their true characteristics are present to the reader as the Europeans travel through the dense African jungle. Although the Africans contrast significantly from their European counterparts in physical features, Conrad writes a story where Europeans become the savages and cowards in an unknown land where normal law does not apply.
The physical deformities given to the Africans fuel the differences between these two races. The cannibal’s faces were depicted as “grotesque masks” with only “black rags” around their body “waggling to and fro like tails” (Conrad 14-15). Contrasted to the normal white male of “ordinary build” with “eyes of the usual blue” these Africans are depicted as physically inferior (Conrad 21). Conrad deliberately adds tails to the savage humans to make them resemble animals such as monkeys. Thus, ultimately placing the white man on pedestal and forcing the Africans to be the workhorses or slaves of the white man. The story is written to display Europeans as normal human beings with no regard to the fact that the Africans are just as human as a white man. The statement where Conrad considers blue eyes to be usual, suggests that Europeans at this time were oblivious to the outside world. This accusation is reinforced when Marlow considered other Europeans “intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretence” (Conrad 70-71). The dehumanization of the African cannibals just reinforces the statement that Europeans considered their physical features superior to all others.
Throughout the story it becomes increasingly obvious that the Europeans are weak compared to the cannibals. As the steamboat was trapped in fog the whites were “greatly discomposed” while the cannibals were “alert” and “essentially quiet” (Conrad 40). Even though the blacks were hundred miles away from their home they possessed great poise in stressful situations while the Europeans were erratic and trigger-happy. The Africans did not fear like a normal white man, the accepted their fate and were prepared to fight no matter the circumstances. The true European’s characteristics appeared late in the story when “the imbecile crowd” of pilgrims “started their little fun” of shooting all the blacks that were turning and running away (Conrad 67). While the Africans only attacked for trespassing, the whites killed for mere enjoyment. The cannibals fought to protect their land, something that should not be considered barbaric. Conrad wanted his audience to understand just because a culture’s lifestyle is different it should not be considered savage. The realization that a civilized European can be just as savage as a cannibalistic African is what Marlow discovers after his travels through the heart of Africa. The differences between cannibals and Europeans is vast yet, barbaric behavior is not created by the environment one lives but how that one acts in the environment he resides in.
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